Today, the irradiation of items or even people is used universally, in industry, in trade, in the household, during leisure time or in medicine. In particular, irradiation procedures are used at different points in industrial processes, for example for heating semi-finished products or for activating chemical reactions. To achieve the distribution of radiation required for this purpose, generally a homogeneous distribution, a specific device is required which is configured for a respective specific component, for a specific shape. Human intervention is necessary in order to adapt a device of this type to different components/shapes.
When irradiating the respective item or items, a radiation source is usually used which has a defined radiation characteristic. Radiators of this type are usually arranged in fields and are fixed in this arrangement. These fields of radiators are configured by an operator for the respective use. Examples include, for example, infrared radiators for heating semi-finished products, UV radiators for curing paints or resins or infrared radiators for drying surfaces. These devices are usually directed onto the surface to be irradiated, then switched on and switched off again at the end of a defined time or upon reaching a particular measurement result.
If relatively complex shapes, such as three-dimensional surfaces with recesses, are to be irradiated uniformly, this has to be considered before the irradiation device is used by adapting the construction or by adjusting an intensity distribution. The reason for this is that the incident radiant power decreases with the square of the distance from the radiation source, i.e. the power has a dependence proportional to 1/r2. In addition, most radiation sources do not have a homogeneous radiation characteristic over the solid angle. Furthermore, different materials absorb electromagnetic radiation at different wavelengths to different extents. Radiators of this type can be connected for example in zones which can be controlled individually. These zones are always at least as big as one radiation source, thus in the above-mentioned case, an infrared lamp. Consequently, irregularities in distribution occur which are potentially undesirable for many processes or which rule out irradiation as a process technology.